The Dismissal!

After a lot of waiting, watching Top Gear on the laptop, blogging and anything else I could think of to waste time, I was dismissed by the defense. The case was a domestic violence one. I didn't know any of the attorneys or witnesses. Dang! I did find out that one of the other jurors was a neighbor. I think I was dismissed because when the prosecution asked if anyone had heard of the "cycle of abuse" I raised my hand. Still, though, I wasn't dismissed for a while after that. The prosecution approved the jury as it stood twice before I was let go. I almost jumped and did the happy dance when the defense said, "And we'd like to thank and dismiss juror number 11." There were some interesting moments. One guy immediately said that he had a problem with domestic violence and that he had no leniency for a guy beating on a girl. ZIP. I wonder who ended up serving? Well, I'm done for the year now. YAY! Cousins Conference starts tonight and Emily and Madelyn are gearing up for that. Spencer had his 13th birthday on Tuesday and received an underwater camera which he loves. Rich and I are still working on plans for the Rancho house and making progress. Beams and shear walls seem to be an issue lately but we have it solved now. Mormon prom is next Saturday as are volleyball tournaments for both Madelyn and Melissa. That should be a challenging weekend. Then BYU women's conference for me! YAY!! I can hardly wait!

Here I sit.

Here I sit in  a jury assembly room waiting for who knows what. My original reporting date was 3/23 and I was able to get it postponed until this week 4/13. It complicated how long we could be out of town for spring break. If I had known that I wouldn't be called in to serve until today at 12:30pm we could have goofed off more in Brian Head or at Franks's house in Henderson. I used to never report but then the government started issuing fines for no shows. Anyway, here I am waiting. At least they have wi-fi here. Cool. Here's another beef I have with jury service. The government pays you $15 per day for your service. If I was a gov't employee I would be paid my normal salary whether I'm there doing my job or here on a jury. I think that either each juror should be paid an equal amount regardless of employment status. No more jury pay for anyone. Nor should anyone else. Make it a true act of  civil service. Equal pay for equal work.  The current system favors juries to be filled by public employees which to me seems slanted in the liberal direction. Ok so now the jury guy just came in and said that he's not going to do orientation until there are at least 60 of us. There are 23 right now and I don't think the number is going to increase anytime soon. I'll probably sit here until 5pm and then go home and probably come back tomorrow. Oh joy.

That's my girls!

Here's a funny video!

News from Allen, Texas

We received a brief email from Collin this morning. Here's a bit of it.

Hey Mom,
hows it going. Everything is going well. I am in Allen
Texas, serving in the 2nd and 4th wards with Elder
Gifford. I am the senior companion, and it is a bit
different. Well, lets see Elder Gifford is from north
California, and is 22. He went on his mission late
because he had some medical issues that needed to be
resolved first.
so Allen is suburbia. and the members are pretty
concentrated. the wards are also very young and upper
middle class to just plain upper class. There are some
huge houses out here.
So here we email form the library, but not today
because we cant get a library card yet.
my favorite talk was either elder L. tom Perry's
talk on member missionary work, which is what we need,
or Elder Holland's talk. it was very spiritual.
There was a lot of stuff about temples.
Conference was awesome. we live with some members.
oh and we were double transfered in because we took over
the area from some sisters. obviously just 1 sister
couldnt leave.right now we have to go. i love you all
very much. i hope you are all doing well
Love,
Elder Collin Brown

Some new stuff.

I just posted a new slideshow of some of the recent things we have been doing. Tennis is there and also volleyball and California All state honor choir. Collin sent some new pictures and some of those are on as well. Collin's big news this week is that he has finally been transferred. Took a little longer than we all expected it would. We don't know where he is yet but will find out Monday sometime. He did know that it was a double transfer. That means that both elders will be brand new to the area. He said that it would be a lot of work but that's what they're there for. He spent 7 months in Quitman. Wow! That's more than a quarter of his mission. Here is an excerpt from a letter. 

oh, and something cool to note. We had dinner with the Stewarts the other day and got to talking, They talked about an exchange student from Sweden they had over here for a while and they went with her back and visited her family. I asked what part of Sweden and they said a tiny island called Gotland. Then i asked where in Gotland and they said Visby. So i met some people in Texas that have been to Visby. The foreign exchange student lived inside the wall somewhere. It was pretty cool. Its the first time i have met anyone who knows where Gotland is, much less to have actually been there.

So i got a bunch of emails to read and then a bunch of things to do to finish packing.

He also sent home a name tag of his. It's cool. He knows a lady that has a bunch displayed on her mantle on little stands. They're from her children and grandchildren. Fun.

Life goes on!